MAIN TALKSPEAKER: John MasonTITLE:For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Look Into Bell's Inequality and the Quest for Quantum Mechanical ValidationABSTRACT:
Since its emergence in the late 1800's, the statistical nature of Quantum Mechanics (QM) has troubled many great classically trained scientists. In 1935, a trio of great physicists, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen, attempted to reconcile the indeterminate nature of QM by introducing the idea of a hidden variable. The notion was seemingly untestable, until 1965 when John Bell developed an experimentally testable inequality. While many different iterations of Bell's Inequality have been derived, Bell's basic principles remain the same. We will discuss the development of the EPR Paradox in conjunction with Bell's Inequality and Texas A&M's efforts in resolving the nearly century long debate.

OPTICS NEWSSPEAKER: Dawson NorduftTITLE: Raman Lidar Spectrally Resolving Gaseous and Liquid Water in the Atmosphere*ABSTRACT:
Like clouds? Ever wanted to shoot lasers at them to understand some of their physical properties? A group in China has done just that. We will discuss the Raman Lidar experiment they developed and the results of their work.*Based on the original work from Fuchao Liu and Fan Yi: Spectrally Resolved Raman Lidar Measurements of Gaseous and Liquid Water in the Atmosphere